The foundation of David Cameron’s referendum case to remain in the EU is that Britain should stay in a reformed EU – and that his recent deal represents real reform.

To throw light on this claim, we simply reproduce, without further comment, a section from David Laws’s newly-published memoirs, as serialised in this morning’s Mail on Sunday. Laws relates a Coalition-period conversation between himself and Nick Clegg about another between Clegg and Cameron:

“Nick told me later: ‘I told Cameron that I just didn’t understand his strategy. I said either your renegotiation is just going to be symbolic and insubstantial, like Harold Wilson’s in the 1970s. In which case, what’s the point? Or you are going to have to go for a full renegotiation, which you may never achieve with other countries on this timescale.’

Cameron looked pretty sheepish, and just said: ‘I know, Nick. That’s why I won’t be spelling out for some time what I am going to negotiate on.’ “